Степанян Դավիթ Stepanyan Ստեփանյան David Давид

Azeri expert: The worse things in Russia will be, the freer Armenia will become

Present-day Armenia is not a real party to the Nagrono-Karabakh conflict as it has long been manipulated by Russia, Azerbaijani political expert Zardusht Alizadeh said in an interview to ArmInfo.

"Once Armenia and Azerbaijan were really close agreement on Nagorno- Karabakh, but it was then that Russia forced Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan to resign just because he was ready for a phased settlement scenario. And when in 1999 Armenia agreed to solve the problem at an OSCE summit in Istanbul, its prime minister, parliamentary speaker and several MPs were simply shot down in the parliament. Without Ukraine Putin will not be able to carry out its elusive plan to build a USSR-type empire, so, for the time being, he is trying to entrap Armenia and Azerbaijan." Alizadeh said.

Alizadeh does not think that today Armenia and Azerbaijan can effectively negotiate the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. "But things can change, especially now that the crisis in Ukraine has put Russia in a fix. All we have to do is to wait for things to become even worse. The worse things in Russia will be, the freer Armenia will become. And once it becomes really free, Azerbaijan will be able to come to terms with it on Nagorno-Karabakh as there will no longer be any mediators imposing their terms on us," Alizadeh said.